The embodiments described within this disclosure relate to monitoring and status detection for consumable items. More particularly, the embodiments described herein relate to utilizing an Internet of Things for monitoring and status detection for consumable items.
Many people attempt to track their food consumption. For example, U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2013/0273506A1 discloses “an automated food intake data acquisition and monitoring system.” U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/0315162A1 discloses “system and methods for monitoring food consumption.” Other systems rely upon the user to manually record consumed meals, vitamins, and/or medications using a journal, whether handwritten or electronic, through social media, or the like.
Some food tracking solutions attempt to automate tracking by utilizing specialized hardware. Often, the user does not have continuous access to this specialized hardware. Without access to the specialized hardware throughout the course of one or more day(s), week(s), or month(s), it becomes unlikely that the user will obtain an accurate representation of what he or she has consumed. With respect to systems that rely upon manual data entry, the user may simply forget to log one or more meals. Inaccurate tracking is often a contributing factor to one's inability to meet particular nutritional or health objectives and may lead to more severe consequences such as illness.
Other food tracking solutions tend to focus on caloric intake without attempting to ascertain what the user is consuming and/or the context in which the consumption takes place. This may lead to situations where a user takes a medication in error or not at all, experiences adverse reactions to particular ingested items or combinations of ingested items, consumes unsafe food, or the like.